LinkedIn Headshots Archives - Page 7 of 9 - Corporate Photographers London

Professional LinkedIn Profile Photo

8th June 2021/in LinkedIn Headshots, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo /by Editor

Do you need a professional LinkedIn profile photo?

LinkedIn is an online worldwide database of professional business people. Used by companies and individuals, it is a very useful tool to help your business. You can create a LinkedIn profile at no cost and use this profile as a showcase for your business skills and experience. Potential clients or employers can view your LinkedIn profile so you need to ensure that it is as professional as it can be.

Why you need a professional LinkedIn headshot?

When a viewer looks at your LinkedIn profile the very first thing that will catch their eye is your profile photo. You do not get a second chance to make a good first impression so if your profile photo is a poor standard then this will reflect on you.

How do I get a professional LinkedIn headshot?

If you decide to get a professional LinkedIn profile photo or headshot then let us discuss the options and the process. Firstly you will need to find a portrait photographer who has experience with corporate photography. After a few searches, you will need to check out their portfolios and check they are within your budget. Make sure whoever you pick has past experience in corporate portrait photography and is used to working in a business environment. The photographer needs to understand that you do not need a nice smiling photo for a dating site but a professional portrait for business.

What should I expect after I commission a professional corporate photographer?

After the shoot, you should receive the full selection of all the headshots captured on the day. You would be asked to make a selection of your preferred headshots and these will be retouched and airbrushed to make you look your best. Be careful to only make subtle changes to your headshots. Removing spots, scares and reducing wrinkles is acceptable. Remember your LinkedIn profile photo needs to resemble a current version of yourself.

What type of LinkedIn headshot should you get?

A great way to make sure you get the ideal professional LinkedIn profile photo is to show the photographer headshot samples you like. Ideally, these are headshots from their portfolio or samples you would like them to replicate. Another factor to look at is what style of headshot best represents my business sector. If you work in the Financial or Legal sectors you want a headshot that shows you as a responsible and professional individual. On the other hand, if you work in the media or creative sectors you can be more relaxed and quirky.

Professional LinkedIn headshots that show a range of different styles.

The above headshot samples were captured in business offices. This gives the impression of a working environment that fits with the image of a busy professional.

Here we have two corporate headshots which have been captured using a studio setup. This means you have the benefit of soft lighting and a plain solid background. Clean crisp and professional.

Above we have samples of LinkedIn profile photos captured in London showing that the individual lives and works in the City.

Natural and unposed corporate reportage photos are becoming more popular for use as LinkedIn profile photos.

Using post-production processes these headshots have been captured on a plain background and then a City backdrop has been added to give a sense of London.

If you have any further questions please visit my LinkedIn profile page and we can discuss your requirements.

LinkedIn Photography London

22nd May 2018/in Corporate Photographer London, LinkedIn Headshots, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo /by Editor

Tips and ideas on how to use photography on your LinkedIn profile page.

We have posted before about the importance of your LinkedIn profile photo and the benefits of having a professional or carefully considered headshot on your LinkedIn page but another important area to consider is the banner or background image you can customise along with the URL you can tailor to benefit you.

The banner image which runs behind your profile photo is important as it is the second thing visitors to your profile will look at. If you leave the default LinkedIn image it looks like you could not be bothered to finish the page and therefore looks unprofessional. I have noticed that people will spend a great deal of time getting their text perfect for their page but when it comes to the use of photography on their LinkedIn profile it seems they either ignore it leaving it as default or make a vague attempt to drop something suitable in. Both or these practises are flawed as LinkedIn has become an excellent market place for professionals but also a way potential employers, clients and customers can check you out without you knowing they have had a look at your professional background.

A friend who was setting up her first LinkedIn page was told by the head of her graphic design degree course not to put a banner image featuring any of her work but just to upload a white file so it appeared neutral. I can see the thinking behind this but I do not agree with the thought process. On your LinkedIn page you should utilise every aspect to make yourself stand out in the business arena. If all the students from my friend’s course follow that advice and only one student uploads her work then which profile will stand out. I suggested she makes a collage of her work so it represents her designs and she can also tailor the background image if she is going for a certain position or commission to fit with that style.

Companies are beginning to ask us to photograph their offices and areas of their business so these images can be used on their corporate profiles. LinkedIn should become a part of your corporate branding and the use of photography is paramount in this process.

On my LinkedIn profile page I have used the image below. It consists of studio, location and office corporate headshots along with one photo of The City. These are the services we offer and the location we work at. Pretty basic stuff but hopefully just by looking at the background photo you could work out what we do and where we do it.

Whichever profession or business sector you or your company work in there will be decent imagery that would greatly improve your profile. Consider what you could use and if you are drawing a blank then approach designers or photographers and collect some ideas and inspiration. It might be a good idea to invest in some good photography software as the banner image has to be 1584 x 396 pixels so all photos would need cropping to fit the letter box format. As already mentioned a montage is useful to fill this shape as square or portrait images can make up the wider landscape crop.

The second point I wanted to draw attention to was the way you can customise your LinkedIn URL. It is free and can help your SEO and make your page more memorable. Simply click on the edit URL option and add your name, company or keywords. Some are taken but you can play around to find a URL which fits your profession. We are corporate photographer London which makes sense.

Please get in touch if you would like our help with your LinkedIn photos and here is an article on professional corporate headshots.

Corporate Headshots on a White Background.

19th April 2018/in Corporate Headshots, Corporate Photographer London, LinkedIn Headshots, Portrait Photography /by Editor

The most popular style of corporate headshot with the subject looking to camera with a white background.

For many years we have been capturing these for clients and it is only recently that we have seen a common problem occurring. Shooting headshots with a white background seems a pretty simple set up and it always was in the past. Clean crisp white Colourama and a diffused light to make it nice and blown would give you and the client exactly the effect they were after. The problems now arise with businesses and individuals putting these headshots onto company websites where they assume the white background on the headshot will match with the white of a webpage. The background will retain some element of tone and hue as the digital camera sensor will always try and level out any colour to give an average recording. You cannot get around this even by flooding the background with white light. Now we try to make clients aware of this but it does sound a little daft to the average person who says they just want a headshot on a white background. We always try and establish the end use for the headshot now as we want to prevent the problem before it arises.

In post-production we remove the headshot from the background and add a white web friendly background in photoshop. An easy process once you know how but as with all photoshop work it really depends on the workflow you use. There are a few tools that allow you to do this but some give much better results than others and one thing is for sure there is no way you can automate the process.

We recently did a shoot in London for a company with their HQ based in Hong Kong. When we sent them the original high-resolution images they were very pleased and we mentioned about the post-production work if they were going to be used on a website. About a month later we received an email noting that the Hong Kong office had flagged some problems with the shots as they were showing some marks on the white background and could we check what we had done incorrectly. After looking at the website screenshots we could tell that the headshots had been cut out incorrectly and this was the problem. The photoshop tool they had used was not that accurate and left pixels in on the white area. We have since gone on to do the cutouts for the company and the problem has been rectified. Describing this problem to clients is not an easy task and telling them it will cost extra in post-production to get the right result tends not to go down to well. We now send samples out so that they can see for themselves that you have to go through with the process.

Sample 1. Standard corporate headshot captured in camera with a white background. Technically correct but flawed for use on a white webpage as it is still retaining tone on the background. You would think that the simple solution would be to add more light to the background but this does not work as it starts to bleed through into the edges of the person and messes up the exposure.

Sample 2. Headshot after photoshop post-production. Headshot cut out with a white web friendly colour background added. Clean and crisp and as on this webpage the background matches the white of the webpage.

If you have had this problem or need any more advise please get in touch and we can talk you through our process and improve your companies headshots. Please see also our previous article on tips for corporate headshot photography

The Advantages of Corporate Photography Post Production Techniques.

27th March 2018/in business headshots, Corporate Headshots, Corporate Office Headshots, Corporate Photographer London, LinkedIn Headshots, Portrait Photography /by Editor

Post production techniques can benefit the marketing impact of your commissioned corporate photography.

Our headshot photographers undertake hundreds of commissions each year and as I get more involved in the post production side of the industry I can see how clients do not see the potential of what is on offer.

To give some examples. The first case is a company will approach us and we will agree to capture their staff and directors headshots. Within our quote we include airbrushing and retouching to selected images. After we do the shoot we send all the high res versions and the client is happy. A week later the headshots are on their website and the next time we will hear from them is when they have new starters to be photographed.

The second case is several other companies we work with and we go through the same process but after the shoot them come back with a list of images they require being retouched and asking if we can do anything to improve the overall impression of the headshots. The answer is always yes.

We are beginning to see that what the photographer can capture in camera is only half of the process. Post production gives a whole new dimension of what can be added to the original corporate headshot.

Traditionally business headshots were on a white or sometimes blue background. This was due to these being the most popular background paper rolls that were sold by Colourama. This trends continues to this day and there is no reason for this. Good quality cut outs in post production means that you can literally have any background you require. As it is now impossible to tell that a headshot has been cut out and placed on a new background this opens up great possibilities. We work with large international companies who want all their worldwide offices to have headshots with the same background. We have guidelines for foreign photographers and we then create a corporate branding in post production. Another client again with international offices was having real problems trying to capture headshots of staff in their offices across the world. Again we wrote guides for the photographers and then purchased library shots of the world capitals and very carefully created a set of professional headshots for them.

Another option to look at is that if you have a headshot you are pleased with and feel confident using then get more from it by adding backgrounds, cropping and tailoring it to work in different situations. These are some samples we put together to help clients understand what is possible in post production.

These two samples have been captured in clients offices and we have subtly retouched them. The worst thing with post production is the ease with which the client or the photographer can over work the headshot. Retouching should never be noticeable on the final version. You would be able to see differences if you compared the original headshot with the retouched version but the final product should and must look natural. Our subtle retouching and airbrushing includes lessening lines and wrinkles normally around the eye area. We also remove any spots or blemishes as these are not permanent features. Scars and moles are a person’s preference wether we remove them or not. Shinny skin can be reduced and any discolouration reduced to look healthy.

At this stage we have now added an office environment background with gives the headshot a new dimension. It makes perfect sense to me that a corporate headshot should have a corporate background. Gives the person a sense of where they work. It is instant that the viewer knows this is a person at work and it is a business profile photograph. I have been creating LinkedIn headshots in London for many years now and I am still amazed at some of the profile photos I see. Snaps of company directors half up a mountain or on a sailing boat. The person is usually so small in the picture they are barely recognisable. If you get past this amateur mistake you then see they have spent a great deal of time writing content for their profile but the first thing you look at as a potential employer or client is the photo and you really need to look professional at that point.

The benefits of adding a background in post production really come into play at this point. You can have your headshot captured in a studio utilising the professional lighting which would be a difficult option if you wanted to do it on location. After this you can add a background that perfectly reflects your business sector.

Being based in London with most of our clients they require a City background added as this reflects their work location. I mentioned earlier about the benefits for international companies but another point to look at is that it is very easy for us to apply the London cityscape as a background but if you try and recreate this on a shoot you will have to gain access to a high building as trying to capture this type of headshot at street level is not possible due to the height of the building which create a steep angle. We have a library taken from many of the skyscrapers in the City purely for the purpose of being added as a background.These are carefully shot to allow for the person standing and blocking most of the view and gently put out of focus to replicate the shot if it was captured in camera and the use of a long portrait lens and the point of focus.

Corporate branding colours can be sample from your old headshots or created and added to your companies headshots. These are also made web friendly and feathered in around hairstyles. It might be suggested that this can be done with a colour background roll and save the post production work but that is a mistake. In the past we had clients buying background rolls and sending them all over the world for different photographers to use. This was in the hope that the background and therefore the headshots would remain consistent. The main recurring problem with this is lighting varies and therefore the hue, colour and brightness of the background changed in different photographers work.

If you want the background and the your headshots to perfectly consistent the only sure way to guarantee this is to add them in post production.

You might be interested in our last post on corporate photography tips.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or additional benefits to corporate photography using post production techniques.